Intelligize Panel to Address Effects of New Accounting Standards on SEC Disclosures

The release of new revenue recognition and lease accounting standards and a proposed change to how credit losses will have to be reported has left practitioners across the country wondering how the new guidance will play out in their financial reporting. For those sorting through the ramifications and defining their new responsibilities, Intelligize is hosting and moderating a panel at the upcoming Workiva User Conference taking place in Nashville from Sept. 19-21 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center.

The revenue recognition rules, which went into effect for public companies at the end of 2017, altered GAAP for revenue recognition tied to customer contracts. Implementing the “principles-based” standard proved to be more of headache for companies than expected. Attendees of the session will have an opportunity to hear how experts handled the transition.

Meanwhile, the new lease standard represents a sea change in accounting and is currently a hot topic for every publicly traded company. An estimated $2 trillion in previously unaccounted for leases will be moving onto corporate balance sheets in 2019 as a result of a decision by the Financial Accounting Standards Board in 2016 that corporate lessees “should recognize the assets and liabilities” arising from their leases. The panel will touch on what that means in practice for financial reporting.

Topic 326, related to credit losses, will likely represent one of the big shifts in accounting practices with particular impact on financial entities. The proposed standard affects any entity that records receivables and investments, or is exposed to credit risk through guarantees, commitments, and off-balance-sheet financial instruments.

All of these topics, and more, will be addressed at next week’s Workiva User Conference when Intelligize presents its panel, “Adventures in Accounting-Land: The Impact of New Standards on Your SEC Disclosures,” featuring an array of experts, including representatives from two of the leading accounting firms. Participating panelists will include Chris Rogers of Deloitte, Grant Thornton’s Cullen Walsh, Anna Pinedo of Mayer Brown and Bill Andreoni of the Pine Hill Group. Marc Butler (that’s me!) of Intelligize is moderating the session.

The panel is intended to help financial statement preparers understand the new standards, come up with plans for adoption and examine market standard language. Topics scheduled to be discussed include:

Defining what the Securities and Exchange Commission expects in filings in regard to revenue recognition;

Identifying how the new lease accounting standard will affect disclosures; and